Wednesday, November 16, 2011

I’ve almost had enough with people trying to fool me to get their way. And I find it totally strange that somehow, I will always find out the truth.

When that happens, I always get anxious, wondering why God wants to show me the true colors of that person. What is he trying to tell me? Why reveal?

My maid was caught lying last weekend. This maid, whom I’ve had for the past 2 years and whose contract is expiring end of this month, had requested for cuti last Saturday. And she wanted to stay overnight at her cousin’s place.

When we questioned her about her plans, she gave us a long list of things that she wanted to do with her “cousin” ni. Nak pegi salon lah, urut kaki lah, tengok movies lah.. but most importantly, she wanted to check out the pasar malam at Jln Masjid India.

So I said, ok.. nak pegi boleh, but nak stay overnight, tak boleh. Anyway, pasar malam is not a good place for foreign workers because ada banyak polis under cover. Instead we asked her to bring her cousin to stay overnight at our house and the next day, we would send them both to Jln Masjid India to shop (punya lah baik majikan ni, kan?)

But she said, no.. the cousin wouldn’t want to stay at our house. (Cousin lives in Bandar Utama, sharing a house with other cleaners, and we live in Ampang). She said the cousin insisted that she stayed over at her place, which sounded a bit weird to me as Bandar Utama is further away from KL or Masjid India.

The plan was, the cousin would pick her up Ampang Point after she finished her work at 7.30pm, and the next day, she would send her back by car.

In the end, we said macam ni lah… why don’t you tell your cousin to meet you tomorrow since it is now almost 7pm. Kalau dia nak datang ke Ampang Point dari Bdr Utama, it’ll take at least 1 hour and there’s nothing much you can do at Ampang Point by then. We can still send you to Ampang Point tonight if you want to do your hair or urut kaki or whatever, but later we pick you up, suggested my husband (See? We are THAT kind)

She agreed. So at 7.30pm last Saturday, we all drove her to Ampang Point so she could get her hair done.

I don’t know whether we were being stupid or kind, but that’s what we did. I was cursing myself for giving in too much to her request but we wanted her to be happy as we wanted her to stay a little longer until we get her replacement.

So, we dropped her off and went to have our dinner…

As I had expected (somehow we have this hunch, don’t we?), at 9.30pm, she texted me, “Kak, I’m meeting with saya punya saudara. Tomorrow I balik. I minta maaf tapi I nak pergi sangat dengan dia for 1 night. Please forgive me.”

With that, I straight away knew that she had been lying. The cousin was actually a cover up for, whoelse but, a guy. She had planned this all along and was supposed to meet up with him that Saturday night. Itu yang beriya2 menangis tu sebab nak jumpa jugak!

I felt so disappointed with her, I really was. We treated her good, layan her like my own daughter, bawa dia jumpa doctor sana sini pasal jerawat muka dia tu etc, etc.. and she could do this to us?

I didn’t reply her SMS. My husband asked me to call her, but what for? I was adamant that I would not have her in my house anymore! I couldn’t believe she could ditch us for this guy whom she barely knew.

So anyway, the night passed with us strategizing our plans on how to manage the household without a maid...

The next day, Sunday, we all went to KLCC because budak kecik tu nak beli Ultraman. He was pestering us to take him to KLCC since morning to buy his toy, so in the end we went there at 3pm.

We had just arrived and had just finished buying some sweets from the new Candylicious outlet when, lo and behold… I saw MY MAID!!! She had just come out of a shop with many shopping bags in her hands, berkasut tumit tinggi, baju baru (beli baru agaknya sebab semalam dia keluar sehelai sepinggang saja), make up sikit punya tebal...

And you guess it lah… she wasn’t alone. There was a guy walking besides her. Macam bagus2… tersengeh2 berdua….

She didn’t see me because if she had, she would have run away. So I continued walking towards her and as our path crossed, I confronted her, “Ohh.. inilah saudara kamu ni, ya? Siapa ni? Who is this?” She looked stunned. Muka pucat! Not a word from her mouth! The guy just stood there, dumbfounded as well.

But since we were very kind people and didn’t want to embarrass her in front of other people that afternoon, we let her go off. There was nothing more to say anyway. The truth had been revealed and she knew she had been caught red-handed.

I didn’t think she would come home on Sunday, but she came back anyway. We were not at home at that time. Boyfriend dia nilah yang hantar balik pakai kereta agaknya (they guy looked local, not Indon). We asked her to wait outside the house for nearly 2 hours. Padan muka! You bijak sangat nak tipu kita, tunggulah kat situ!

Since that day, I have not spoken to her. I only speak when necessary. I didn’t ask her to explain why either because there’s nothing more to explain. Ikutkan hati, memang I nak suruh dia keluar saja dari rumah tu because I cannot trust her anymore. But my husband ni insisted that we keep her until we get a new maid.

Keep lah… but I am no more Mr Nice Guy. No more gelak2 macam dulu, no more eating together at the dining table, no more leeway for you. We want to treat you like family, but it seems like you want us to treat you like any other maids. So, there you have it!

Lesson learnt: Don’t be too nice to the maid, nanti dia pijak kepala kita. People used to tell me this before, but I didn’t believe them for I feel you have to be nice to them so they stay. After this incident, I would definitely be more careful…